by Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
"We will uproot the state of the Jews, and you [Hamas] and Fatah ... will be over-run by our creeping multitudes," says Islamic State video from Syria • Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz accuses Hamas of partnering with Islamic State affiliates in Sinai.
Policemen loyal to Hamas march during a military graduation ceremony in Gaza, June 16 Photo credit: Reuters
 |
The Islamic State group threatened on Tuesday to turn the Gaza Strip into another of its Middle East fiefdoms, accusing Hamas, the terrorist organization that rules the Palestinian coastal enclave, of being insufficiently stringent about religious enforcement.
The video statement, issued from an Islamic State stronghold in Syria, was a rare public challenge to Hamas, which has been cracking down on jihadis in Gaza.
"We will uproot the state of the Jews, and you and Fatah, and all of the secularists are nothing, and you will be over-run by our creeping multitudes," said a masked Islamic State member in the message addressed to the "tyrants of Hamas."
"The rule of Shariah [Islamic law] will be implemented in Gaza, in spite of you. We swear that what is happening in the Levant today, and in particular the Yarmouk camp, will happen in Gaza," the Islamic State member said, referring to the group's advances in Syria, including in a Damascus district founded by Palestinian refugees.
Credit: Reuters
Islamic State has also taken over swathes of Iraq and has claimed attacks in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen.
Hamas is an Islamist movement that shares the jihadis' hostility to Israel but not their quest for a global religious war, defining itself more within the framework of Palestinian nationalism.
Deemed a terrorist group by Israel, the United States and the European Union, and viewed by neighboring Arab power Egypt as a regional security threat, Hamas’ struggle against Islamic State-linked jihadis has not won sympathy abroad.
Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz accused Hamas on Tuesday of partnering with Islamic State affiliates in the Egyptian Sinai -- a charge long denied by the Palestinian group.
"There is cooperation between them in the realm of weapons smuggling and terrorist attacks," Katz told a Tel Aviv conference organized by the Israel Defense journal.
"The Egyptians know this, and the Saudis.
"At the same time, within Gaza, Islamic State has been flouting Hamas. But they have common cause against the Jews, in Israel or abroad."
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=26569
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
No comments:
Post a Comment